ZHENGZHOU, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- About 70 percent of water used in Beijing comes from China's Yangtze River valley through a massive water diversion program, water authorities have said.
Over 1.5 billion cubic meters of water were diverted from the Danjiangkou Reservoir conjoining central China's Henan and Hubei provinces, as of Aug. 10, accounting for 70 percent of Beijing's water demand.
Water from the Danjiangkou Reservoir began flowing to Beijing in December 2014, as one of the three branches of China's south-to-north water diversion program, channeling water from the Yangtze River valley in southern China to address water shortages in the country's north and western regions.
To ensure water quality, Henan has made a 1,595 square km water protection zone near the reservoir and removed nearby factories and companies along the water diversion route to make room for forestry. The province has also put 181 water treatment and soil conservation projects in place to protect water sources.
In exchange for clean water from the south, Beijing has funded water protection and related programs in Henan with 250 million yuan (37.69 million U.S. dollars) per year since 2014.
Over the past five years, Beijing has signed combined investment deals with Henan worth 1.08 trillion yuan, with 431.9 billion already invested.
Henan is also slated to sign a number of deals with Beijing on Monday, for cooperation in education, technology and many other sectors, authorities said. Enditem
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